Story+1976-08-22+Springfield,+MA

“I grew up in this small town, was about...ten thousand people I guess...and I lived in this two family on this main drag, next-door to this gas-station...gas-station used to close up ‘round one o’clock...kids used to pull in and out all night long right beneath my window...and my mom, she worked, she was a secretary downtown and...my Pop, he worked as a guard at the jail for a while...he worked in this plastics’ factory and...used to work in this big rug mill they had till they closed down...a lot of times he just stayed home...I used to run off to New York whenever, whenever I got the chance...but, but I always knew that when I’d come back that my father, he be sitting there waiting for me...’cause what he used to do around nine o’clock every night he used to shut off all the lights in the house...and my mother, she’d sit in the front room and watch TV...and every night for as long as I remember, ever since I was a real little kid, he’d sit in that, he’d sit in that kitchen with all the lights out and just smoke cigarettes, drink beer...and wait for me to come home...he used to lock up the front door so I used to have to come in ‘round the kitchen...and sometimes I’d stand in the driveway and I could see the light of his cigarette through the screen door and I’d just stand there and watch him...and finally I’d slick my hair back real tight and try to walk up on the porch and hope I could make it through the kitchen before he’d stop me... every time he’d wait till I’d just, he’d wait till I got to the stairs and he’d call my name...to come back...and sit down with him for a while...we’d start off talking ‘bout nothing too much...what I was doing in school or something...then pretty soon...he would ask me where I was getting my money from...who I was going out with, what I thought I was doing with myself...we’d start screaming at each other...my mother, she’d come running in from the front room trying to keep us from fighting with each other...and I remember I’d always shake him off me and I’d run out the backdoor telling him that it was my life and I could do what I wanted to do...”
 * 22.08.76 Springfield, Mass., intro to “It’s My Life”**

“Scientists...were excavating...over in Egypt...I don’t know if you saw this, it was in the papers...they were excavating at the site...of a proposed Holiday Inn...and as they dug down into the heart of the earth...they came upon a tomb...so they rolled away the stone ...and all they heard was this beat...they found out that, through experiments, that whenever this beat was played...men would take women...and women would take their men into a deep dark corner...and they’d get real close...and they danced...they found traces of this beat...a Viking Lander found it in the soil on Mars... they traced it back to the beginning of the universe...when all the sounds exploded...and they found that it originated on earth...in the deepest, darkest part of the world...somewhere off Route 18 in New Jersey...when this beat gets played, girls throw off their clothes and jump in to the aisle...grown men fall to their knees and cry...good girls go bad and the bad girls get worse...so if all this stuff don’t happen tonight, it’s your own fault...”
 * 22.08.76 Springfield, Mass., intro to “She’s the One”**

“This is a song that’s gonna be on my new album when it comes out (?)…whenever I get it out…”
 * 22.08.76 Springfield, Mass., intro to “Something in the Night”**

“Ladies and gentlemen...boys and girls...we got with us tonight ...direct from the Paradise Room, downtown Asbury Park...courtesy of Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes (crowd cheers) The Miami Horns!...(laughs) looking pretty...they’re gonna help us do the ”Tenth”…”
 * 22.08.76 Springfield, Mass., intro to “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”**

“The Miami Horns (crowd cheers) they’ll be back later, they’ll be back…”
 * 22.08.76 Springfield, Mass., after “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”**

“Wherever you are…Rosie, come out tonight (crowd cheers)… (…) Ladies and gentlemen, we are lucky to have with us here tonight...a distinguished name in the music business...the most educated member of the band...he got the diploma from Wikapucka Tech...and Akawakaiya...on the piano, a brave round of applause for Professor Roy Bittan, please...express yourself, Professor (Roy plays a minute of Bach’s “Prelude No. 1 from "The Well-Tempered Clavier”)…(Roy stops)…(crowd cheers) what’s all that noise? what are you guys doing in my bedroom?...one, two, three, four...on the guitar, writer of such hits as “Sweeter than Honey,” “I Don’t Wanna Go Home,” Miami Steve...on the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W. Tallent ...on the drums, the Mighty Max...on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici...Phantom moves...and last but not least, king of the world, master of the motherfucking universe...your next President ...Mr. Hollywood...on the saxophone, the Big Man, Clarence Clemons... (…) This is his last chance, tell him, Rosie, I ain’t no freak…’cause I got my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek…”
 * 22.08.76 Springfield, Mass., intro to “Rosalita”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//